After London Riots, Is Social Media Force of Good or Evil?

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been credited with, literally, changing the way the world communicates. They've connected people from across the globe, given voice to the voiceless and provided ways for everyone from politicians to pop stars, soccer moms and pundits to share their thoughts and reactions to world events in an instant.

It's not a stretch to say that without social media outlets such as Twitter, TwitPic, YouTube and Facebook, the historic uprisings in the Middle East this winter may not have taken place.

This past week has also shown us that social media can build up as easily as it tears down. The shocking images of British towns being looted and arsonists setting fire to whole blocks in reaction to an unexplained police shooting of 29-year-old father of four Mark Duggan were horrifying enough.

But when reports emerged that the young, hoodie-wearing hooligans who were largely behind the attacks were meeting up and organizing their robbery sprees on Facebook and Twitter, it was a sobering reminder that social media takes as much as it gives.

I was witness to another troubling use of social media this week as well at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. At various points during the day, large packs of teens could be seen running the wrong way down Lake Shore Drive, rushing security guards and hurling themselves over barricades en masse in an effort to gate crash the festival that takes place in the city's historic downtown Grant Park.

Security forces managed to catch some of the interlopers and a source said that police and concert security were monitoring chat boards and Twitter feeds to try and stay one step ahead of the outlaws, but even with those efforts there were multiple breaches per day of the large, fenced-off perimeter.

In response to the unrest in England, British Prime Minister David Cameron said this week that his government is working with police and intelligence services on ways to stop rioters from using social media as a way to organize, a troubling, Orwellian threat that hints at a curtailing of free speech and association.

Similarly, Philadelphia's Mayor, Michael Nutter, defended his move to impose stiff curfews on teenagers in his city after a series of "flash mob" attacks in which teens organized on social media to plot beatings.

Are these incidents reason enough to abandon social media, curtail access or to label it a source of evil in our midst? I don't think so. Like any new technology -- think cell phones, VCRs, iPods, personal computers – at some point an early adopter is bound to find a way to turn something revolutionary into a tool of destruction or deceit. (Or, as is more often the case with all of the above, find a way to monetize it through pornography.)

There's always a tipping point – and hopefully the London riots are it – where it feels like the new technology is more trouble than it's worth. But, hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and the troublemakers will simply move on to the next new thing in their endless search for ways to exploit and deceive.